RP:A Piece of the Puzzle Falls into Place

From HollowWiki

Part of the The Ice Plague Cometh Arc




Scent of Night Blossoms

Satoshi sits at the base of one of the statues lining the pathway, the basalt dragon to be exact. Cross legged and with an elbow on her knee to better support her chin, the magus seems to be staring off into space. A frown creases her brow, suggesting Satoshi's thoughts are not pleasant daydreams. In truth, she's frustrated, having just come from a discussion with the arena master. The Frost Giant, a proud and capable female beastmaster, had reported that the two newest Winter Wolf arrivals had fallen ill. A strange occurence for a normally hearty species of animal, although it's made a more worrisome matter because this is the fourth case of creatures from the forest becoming sick. "...What's the connection?" Satoshi's thoughts unwittingly are voiced following a sigh.


Hildegarde had inquired about Satoshi, asking her Queensguard brothers if they knew where she might be or would likely to be anyway. The knight swiftly departed the fort and made for the tunnel, entering with a little sigh: how could she be so selfish in needing to speak her mind when the Queen surely had other things on her mind? More important things, at least. At the sight of Satoshi, however, the knight spoke with a gentle voice, "My lady?" she said, a little worried that she was perhaps interrupting some sort of private time the Queen was taking. It would not surprise Hildegarde if the Queen needed some time alone, to be truthful.


Satoshi's thoughts are brought to an end, ears giving a brief twitch as she turns to face the tunnel's entrance. As a way of inviting the knight forward, Satoshi nods before climbing to her feet and leaning a shoulder against the dragon statue's hindleg. There's a certain comfort taken from contact with the ancient basalt, it having stood in this cavern throughout Frostmaw's history, enduring every war, storm, and upheavel thrown at it. The Snow Maiden had built her lands to last. Satoshi will ensure they do. But not alone, the magus reminds herself, she needs all those loyal to Frostmaw. Including the Silver standing in front of her now. "Hildegarde." Satoshi has her serious voice on as she addresses the knight by her proper name. "Do you mind telling me what in the name of Aramoth happened in my throne room?" Satoshi knows the general story, she has eyes and ears everywhere, but she wants to hear it from the knight behind it all. If anyone was going to tell the whole truth despite making themselves look bad, it'd be the humble Hildegarde.


Hildegarde managed - if only just - to refrain from wincing at the use of her name, but she dropped immediately to her knee and allowed her halberd to rest on the floor as a show of submission. "My lady," she began, refusing to meet her eye for the tale simply shamed her so, "when we were ambushed by those Ice Devils, one stabbed me with blackened ice. It was not until later, that I felt ill and gradually… not myself. Before I knew it, my thoughts turned dark; my thoughts turned to ideas of harming you, Your Grace." The Silver was struggling to confess the story, so horrendously appalled and ashamed by it. "My lady, I cannot begin to explain how terribly sorry I am for allowing myself to succumb to such a force. I… I nearly let Sir Eliason kill me, for fear that I had killed the Lady Aela." Hilde shook her head, suppressing the little sniffle that threatened to take place, "I cannot forgive myself for allowing that corruption to pollute my mind in such a way, I could have harmed you. It is bad enough that I harmed Aela and Eliason. I do not ask to escape any punishment that you deem appropriate, my lady, I only wish… well, wish that I can continue to prove myself to you with my service. But if you find me unfit, I understand."


Satoshi allows a look of alarm to flit across her features. "One of the Devils stabbed you? Mithril! You should have told me! If I had known, I would have ensured one of the priests tended to you, along with the shamans." Mentally, Satoshi kicks herself. If she hadn't been preoccupied fighting beside Kasyr, maybe she would have seen Hildegarde was stabbed. This whole mess could have been avoided, if the magus had just been more attentive on the battlefield. Another sigh escapes Satoshi as a hand is pressed to her forehead, eyes closed against her self-focused frustration. "I'm sorry, Mithril. I should have warned you of the dangers of Devil's Ice. It's a foul, corruptive force, it eats away at the light to breed shadows within the mind. You cannot be blamed for their influence, although I ask that you visit the priests, have them ensure all has been purged. A single splinter can remain, hidden and waiting, until it infects you anew later. You and I both don't want that." Satoshi steps forward then and drops to a knee, all the better to peek up at the submissive knight and flash her a grin. When she speaks again, her voice is low, conspiratorial, as she confides in the Silver, "You are not the only one here who has faced and carried the darkness of the Devils, Mithril."


Hildegarde chanced a glance up at Satoshi, "Tharn removed the ice before we left, in an effort to assist me," she said it, glad that the Giant had helped her. "You are at no fault, my Queen, I should have done better in the battlefield. I, ah… I don't think having one eye has made things easy," she said near bashfully. The knight, however, nodded in assent, "I will visit them, as you say. Lady Aela and Sir Eliason removed it from me as best they could, but I will still see the priests just to be on the safe side." As the Queen peeks up at her face and grins, the Silver feels herself smile back - even if it was a touch on the shy side - and her curiosity pique, "What do you mean, my lady?"


Satoshi shifts into a crouch so that she can rock back on her heels, eyes on the ceiling. "The Ice Devils have.... -had- a King. Supposedly, he was the father of their kind. I spent months tracking him, until we finally fought and I killed him by ripping out his heart. I still don't know what possessed me to do it, but I ate that heart. Damn near killed me." Sometimes, Satoshi thinks it -did- kill her, and only the intervention of the ruins spirits and her elementals had let her be reborn as an eidolon. Memories of it bring shadows to the magus' face, expression strained with phantom pain. "I carried that corruption for a long time until I found a means of removing it. And -that- damn near killed me too. Suffice to say, Mithril, I know what sort of whispers come from Devil's Ice. I know what it does to the mind."


Hildegarde listened carefully to Satoshi, frowning at first and then feeling her mouth fall open slightly in surprise, "I had no idea," she confessed. She even went so far as to say, "It… It felt like watching someone else who looked exactly like me. I could hear what they were thinking and it was frightening, frightening to even think some part of me - corrupted or not - wanted to even consider hurting you." The knight shook her head shamefully, "I am sorry."


Satoshi's gaze falls from the ceiling to the knight, expression wry. "Don't apologize. Of -course- there is some part of you that wants to hurt me. You're a dragon, I'm undead, part of the Vampire Houses. By nature, we should be enemies, and by nature a spark of that lives within you. As it does in me. Devil's Ice seeks that spark out, however tiny and untapped it might be, and kindles it with lies and twisted promises. That is how corruption works. Like a cancer it takes what is good and healthy then warps it into a foul growth, until nothing of the original remains. You are free of it, however. That is," Satoshi's smirk widens to reveal fangs, "unless you still wish to hurt me~?"


Hildegarde huffed at the question, shaking her head, "Of course not. Gods above, I even begrudge hurting a criminal." It was true, the knight had wept ridiculously after the slaying of Pridak and still felt guilty for the slaying of the poachers. The knight smiled at Satoshi, though, "I was thinking of perhaps renewing my vow of service to you, Satoshi. I feel as of late, you and I have been at odds. We have drifted apart, it feels, in our effort to discern who our true enemy is."


Satoshi said to Hildegarde, "If you wish, by all means. Although speaking of true enemies, I've begun to think it is not the Time Lord behind this. I discussed the matter with my husband, who is quite familiar with that Leech, and he disagrees with my original suspicions." Hellfire does it hurt for Satoshi to admit that. "He, and I, think it best to pursue your suspicions, as well as studying Frostmaw's past. The city has a long, bloody history, our enemy may be from further back than we originally thought. The Ice Devils have carried a hatred for Frostmaw since the Snow Maiden walked the lands, it is likely there are others with similar grudges."


Hildegarde said to Satoshi, "And there is talk of animals dying, I hear. Frostmaw will suffer in more ways than one, if that is the case. Since the Snow Maiden," she mused, "and you talk of this Devil's ice... My Queen, I... I want a garrison of men."


Satoshi resists the urge to jokingly say, 'Only if you don't turn them against me.' It's the sort of remark she can crack at Svilfon after a serious, and usually bloody, situation, but Hildegarde... Satoshi's learned that some remarks are taken to heart by the modest dragon. Instead, the magus nods in consent. "Of course. For what reason? Has something occured to you?"


Hildegarde nodded immediately, rising to her feet at long last as she picked up her halberd. "When we slew that impossible being and... and Elenor, I was so wounded that I staggered to Lake Frysta," she said. "I thought it was due to losing so much blood, that it was just a hallucination... But that woman in the water spoke to me, she tasked me to slay a beast and gave me my halberd. My lady, animals are dying," she said it almost hurriedly. "As a beast myself, I know I have been tempted to drink from the waters of Frysta and have done so before. Animals all share a water source. If you poison the source, you poison the animals; even the people. I feel as though my head might explode with how quickly I am thinking!" she laughed.


Satoshi stands back up so suddenly she's made momentarily dizzy. And yet that doesn't stop her from replying, even as she begins striding toward the tunnel's entrance. "Go, Mithril, quickly! And take a priest or paladin with you!" Hildegarde's comment has set Satoshi's mind into a whirlwind, fragments of thoughts starting to click into place. Bozrah's missing ice. The rise in Devils. Animals falling ill. Dead fish in Lake Frysta. Lake Frysta...the source of the region's rivers, and Frostmaw's drinking water. Water is the key. "I have to get to the tavern!"


Hildegarde nodded sharply, turning and running out of the tunnel at a speed one would think impossible for such a heavily armoured woman. She needed the priests, shamans and a contingent of guards; she needed them quick.


Satoshi is gone as quickly as a snowflake in the Summer sun. She needs to reach the tavern and the fort, she needs to stop the distribution of drinks carrying Lake Frysta's water. But she knows she's too late. Bozrah's ice went missing weeks ago...


Hildegarde did not reach the fort as quickly as Satoshi, of course, but she got there as quickly as her feet could carry her. "I need priests and shamans, sent to Lake Frysta immediately!" she said, allowing a page to run off and fetch them for her, "You, summon a contingent of guards to the lake!" the other page lingered, obviously a little shell-shocked. "Now!" the Silver roared, watched as he scrambled off to fetch her that contingent of guards. The knight would not linger, however, she would make her way to Lake Frysta at once in an effort to protect the region.